Pokémon is one of the most influential series to hit television screens and video game consoles. With its success, the world has seen countless rip-offs and inspired franchises, from Temtem to Digimon. These series can be indirectly inspired collect 'em all games or directly copied level-based battling RPGs with monster-catching elements.
Because there are so many franchises inspired by Pokémon, the following are some of the most popular Pokémon-inspired anime. At its core, Pokémon is about monster catching and monster battling, so one or both of those elements are present in all of these anime.
10 Zatch Bell! Swaps Monsters For Magical Puppets
Teenager Kiyo Takamine gets pulled into a battle for the title of King of the Mamodo World after befriending the mamodo named Zatch Bell. Zatch is a puppet-like humanoid who gets his fighting prowess from Kiyo casting spells from his summoning book. With 99 enemies to fight through, the team eventually gains a group of fellow fighters and takes on more difficult opponents.
Rather than collecting monsters, this series focuses more on battling the mamodo using spells, similar to calling out attacks in Pokémon. Also, Zatch and Pikachu both have similar electricity-based attacks.
9 Monster Rancher Teaches Breeding Over Fighting
Monster Rancher as a franchise is closer to Digimon than Pokémon, as the series focuses more on raising monsters than battling them, though the anime does feature plenty of fighting. The anime follows Genki Sakura, a tournament winner of the titular game series who's transported into an alternate world.
After meeting fellow human Holly, he finds a variety of monsters, including his summoned partner Mocchi, the yellow eyeball creature Suezo, the rock giant Golem, the horned wolf Tiger, and the rabbit monster Hare who accompany him on his quest to stop the evil monster named Moo.
8 Yu-Gi-Oh! Collects Cards To Win
The original version of Yu-Gi-Oh! was a darker story where Yugi and Atem faced off against villains in a variety of games, from the Monster World RPG to Scorpion Shoe. It eventually found success in the form of the collectible trading card game that fans know and love today.
The premise of the game is to collect cards, filling a deck to battle against rivals in competitions, eventually having one person named as the champion. Change the word "cards" to "monsters" and "deck" to "team" in that last sentence and that's just the same as Pokémon.
7 Slugterra Shoots Elemental Slugs Out Of Guns
What if Pokémon trainers used guns to launch their monsters instead of Poké Balls? This series follows Slugslinger Eli Shane and his team as they face off against evil teams that want to change the slugs for their own gain.
These slugs come in 48 breeds split between 12 elements, even having their own version of Magikarp called the Flopper, which are useless against opponents. Thanks to a tool known as the Megamorpher, the slugs can power up into new forms with stronger abilities.
6 Beyblade Lets It Rip With Aggressive Top Spinning
One of the few still-ongoing franchises on this list, Beyblade is a competitive top spinner battling game where Bladers, like the original series' Tyson, let it rip. Tyson is notable as his outfit is directly modeled after Red's in the original Pokémon games. Each Beyblade has its own Bit-Beast, which is the spirit that inhabits the Beyblade.
In every series that has been released in the franchise, there's been a team of good Bladers that battle against bad Bladers in competitions, sometimes fighting for the Bit-Beasts' freedom.
5 Yo-kai Watch Introduces Spirits That Need To Be Stopped
One of the more recent Pokémon-inspired series, Yo-kai Watch follows Nate as he's introduced to the world of the Yo-kai. Bringing its relation to Pokémon home, the very first episode begins with Nate bug hunting. After Nate unleashes a Yo-kai, he begins to see them around humans, causing trouble that only he can fix by battling.
The first bad Yo-kai he runs into almost causes his parents to get a divorce, so the stakes are high from the first episode. Both series feature similar creature designs, as they're both based on Yo-kai lore.
4 Medabots Uses AI-Based Robots To Fight
Instead of focusing on monsters, this series centers on artificially intelligent robots called Medabots. Medabots consists of 3 parts: a skeleton, the armor, which is interchangeable and houses the weapons systems, and a medal, which is where the AI is stored.
The main character Ikki Tenryo finds a medal in the river that was stolen from a lab, giving him access to Metabee, a disobedient Medabot. After winning a battle, the victor gets a piece of the losing Medabot, making their bot stronger — and replacing the trading mechanic seen in Pokémon.
3 Bakugan Merges Pokémon And Yu-Gi-Oh! Mechanics To Save The World
Merging the various aspects of Pokémon — collecting creatures in balls for combat — and Yu-Gi-Oh! — using cards in battles that can occur on alternate terrains — Bakugan is another long-running series that focuses on the plight of good versus evil while battling monsters. Dan Kuso and his team battle to save multiple worlds from destruction across several seasons of the series.
Bakugan battles are played by placing 3 gate cards each, then launching one of three Bakugan from their team onto them, collecting the benefits of the card. Additional cards can be played to boost power levels and defeat opponents.
2 Dinosaur King Turns Chibi Dinos Into CGI Monstrosities For Battle
Dinosaur King was originally released as a trading card arcade game where players would collect cards and use them at an arcade machine to battle. When it was eventually turned into an anime, certain aspects, like the battles, were changed.
The anime follows Max and his group as they battle against the Alpha Gang, who want to destroy the dinosaurs. Each of the partner dinosaurs has 2 forms: a chibi animated form and a realistic CGI form used during battle. Each dino user also has access to a variety of dinos that inhabit the collectible cards.
1 Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers Become Pokémon-Lite Battlers
After a presentation of the DISKs (Digital Identity Securement Kits) by Iron Man and a fellow scientist at the Raft is infiltrated by Loki, the Avengers are all sucked into the DISKs. Each DISK is coded into 5 specific types of biocode: tech, fight, energy, power, and beast. Each biocode houses skill-based heroes, so tech houses Iron Man, power houses Hulk, and so on.
Because of the incident, 5 kids who were present and exposed to the various biocodes are tasked with saving the world by summoning the Avengers like Pokémon as needed.